The Beaudelaires are in hot pursuit of the kidnapped Quagmires and find themselves under the questionable care of the crow-fixated elders of a remote village.

From ‘a murder of crows’, to ‘as the crows fly’, to ‘a crowbar in a crow bar’, there’s no shortage of avian wordplay and banter in this adaptation of Book the Seventh in the Lemony Snicket series. Lucy Punch’s Esmé has now joined Count Olaf’s band of ne’er do wells and is quick to find a disguise as a cop, complete with CHiPs mirrored sunglasses and motorcycle helmet. Olaf himself is masquerading as a hip, jive detective, turning the tables on dopey Jacques Snicket (a delightfully hammy Nathan Fillion).

What works so well with this story is its non-stop succession of plot twists and turns, which see characters flipping from being the accuser to the accused, and the captor to the captured, with multiple mistaken identities and deaths (or not) thrown in for good measure. Amidst all of this, Sunny, Violet and Klaus are performing menial tasks like washing the village donkey while trying to rearrange the clues that will eventually reveal where the kidnapped children are.

This episode is Nathan Fillion’s strongest yet, and while the show undoubtedly belongs to the juvenile actors, he adds another layer of fun and verisimilitude. In the absence of a big name guest star for the story, the regulars get more screen time, and by the end of the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed 95-minutes, things will never be the same again.

Verdict: The most plot-driven episodes to date, you’ll need to give it your full attention to appreciate all the nuances and references. Kids will have no problem whatsoever. 8/10

Nick Joy